The Importance of Medicine
by celrock
Summary: When Tommy refuses to take Chuckie's advice to take his medicine seriously, he must learn an important lesson the hard way. This story takes place when the gang is in kindergarten. Thank you Vinzgirl for inspiring this idea.


Author's Note: Yeah yeah yeah, I know, I haven't posted anything new to Fan Fiction in like, forever. To make a long story short, let's simply say that life, got in the way. No matter, thanks to being inspired after hearing my friend and Fan Fiction user, Vinzgirl, make some comment the other day about how yucky medicine tastes, I was inspired to write this story. I hope you enjoy!

The Importance of Medicine

Summary: When Tommy refuses to take Chuckie's advice to take his medicine seriously, he must learn an important lesson the hard way. This story takes place when the gang is in kindergarten. Thank you Vinzgirl for inspiring this idea.

Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, or characters who should appear from other franchises, like Nigel Thornberry, they're the property of their original creaters. I own the OC of Zack, along with any other OC's you don't recognize, like their teacher, Mrs. LindaBerry, while Kai, Kya, and Min Jun are owned by Vinzgirl.

It was shortly after the Christmas break had ended, and a new calendar year had begun, as the kindergarteners in Mrs. LindaBerry's class had returned to school, eager to see what exciting things they'd learn, staying snug and warm indoors, as a cold frost swept over Yucaipa, California, during that long, month of January. A week had passed since the holiday break had ended, and everybody was excited for what would be known as Field Trip Fridays, where instead of spending the day at school, they would take an exciting trip to some place they had never been before, and learn something new.

"Now remember class, tomorrow will be our first field trip Friday to the television studio, where we'll get to see how movies and TV shows are made, and, we'll be getting our picture taken with someone who you all know quite well." Mrs. LindaBerry said, holding up a picture of Reptar for the entire class to see.

"Reptar!" The entire class cried excitedly upon seeing the picture in their teacher's hand.

"That's right! I hope you all remembered to turn in your permission slips, signed by your parents or gardians, and make sure to leave them on my desks before you leave today." Mrs. LindaBerry said, just as the final bell rang.

Just as the kids were heading to their cubbies to grab their things and drop their permission slips off, Tommy sneezed, for what seemed like the bazillionth time that day.

"Blesh you Tommy." Mrs. Lindaberry said, taking his permission slip from him.

"Thank you Mrs. LindaBerry." Tommy said, reaching for another tissue from the box on her desk and wiping his nose.

"Goodness Tommy, you sure have been sneezing quite a bit today. I hope you're not coming down with a cold. You wouldn't want to miss tomorrow's field trip, I know how much you've been looking forward to this trip all week." Mrs. LindaBerry said, with slight concern in her voice.

The purple haired five-and-a-half-year-old finished wiping his nose and smiled up at his teacher.

"No worries Mrs. LindaBerry, I'll be just fine! I wouldn't miss tomorrow's field trip for anything! Especially when Reptar's involved, he's my hero! Maybe I'll even get to see the sets for the new Okey-dokey Jones show that I hear is coming to Netflix!" Tommy cried excitedly, before letting out a small cough, as he ran to his cubby to put on his coat and grab up his backpack.

Mrs. LindaBerry simply shook her head, as she saw to getting her students lined up and seeing them out the door to the various lines, waiting for the buses to take them home or to daycare, or the line for those being picked up by family members or friends. Kai and Kya went to that line, while Zack went to the line to attend the Gifted and Talented (GT) after school program, and everybody else, headed to the schoolbus line that would take them to their respective homes. Tommy caught up with Chuckie in the line, coughing every so often and wiping his nose on his coat sleeve, as they headed to the bus. Once they found a seat, the redhead gave his best friend a worried look.

"What's wrong Chuckie?" Tommy asked.

"You don't look so good Tommy, and you've been coughing and sneezing all day. You sure you're alright?" Chuckie asked.

"I'm fine Chuckie, I've just got a cold that's all." Tommy said, as the two of them waved goodbye to their friend Min Jun, who was getting off at his stop.

"See you tomorrow!" Min Jun cried, stepping off the bus.

"Bye!" Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, and Kimi called after him.

Once the bus started moving again, Chuckie turned his attention back to his sick best friend.

"Don't forget to take your medicine Tommy, that'll help keep you from coughing and clear up your nose so you don't sneeze so much." Chuckie said.

Tommy glared at him with disgust.

"Medicine tastes yucky! Chuckie, it's just a cold, all I need to do is drink lots of juice, take lots of naps, and I'll be good as new! You'll see." Tommy said reassuringly.

Chuckie simply shrugged his shoulders.

"If you say so Tommy." He said with a sigh, as the bus stopped at his house and he and Kimi got out, where they met their mom Kira at the curb.

Tommy continued his trip to his house in silence, confident his plan to cure his cold would work. When he, Phil and Lil got off at their houses, Phil turned to Tommy.

"Are you going to play with me and Lil til our mommy and daddy get off of work and pick us up?" Phil asked, as the three kids walked up to Tommy's front door.

"No thanks guys, you two have fun with Dilly, I'm sure he's lonely, given he's been out of school since preschool let out at lunch time. I've got a cold and need to go take a nap, if I'm going to be all better by tomorrow to see Reptar." Tommy said, meeting his dad at the door.

The kids went inside and all sat at the table with four-year-old Dil, where they had a snack, and Tommy drank three glasses of apple juice along with his cookies, while coughing and sneezing several times.

"You don't sound so good Champ, you sure you're feeling okay?" Stu asked, pouring Tommy's third glass of apple juice and setting it down in front of him.

"I don't feel so good dad, I've got a cold." Tommy said, picking up his glass and taking a sip.

"Maybe you ought to go lie down. I'll have your mom check on you when she gets home from running erronds." Stu said, patting his son's head.

Tommy finished up his juice and headed up to his room, where he changed into his favorite Reptar pajamas, and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, not completely aware just how tired he was. By the time he awoke, feeling the need to go to the bathroom badly after drinking all of that apple juice earlier, it was dark outside and Phil and Lil had been picked up by their parents. His face hurt around his eyes and he felt a headache, and an even more stuffy nose, but decided to shake it off, as soon, it would be dinner time, where he could obtain more fluids.

"I'm sorry you have a cold sweetie. After dinner I'll give you some Nighquil, that'll make you feel all better." Didi said, placing a bowl of chicken noodle soup in front of her oldest sick child.

" _I hate medicine._ " Tommy thought to himself, as he slowly ate his soup and drank another two glasses of apple juice.

When it came time to take the nasty green liquid, no sooner had his mom put the cup to his lips and helped him take his medicine, when he spit out the medicine in his mother's face.

"Tommy! We don't spit out our medicine. Now, come on." Didi said, refilling the cup with more mnedicine and handing it to Tommy, who proceeded to throw the cup across the room, earning him a spot in the corner for five minutes for a time out, much to his dismay.

While he reluctantly waited for the timer to go off, he made up his mind to trick his mom into thinking he took the medicine, as there was no way he was going to take something that tasted so nasty.

As the night wore on, his cold got worse, as he was up half the night, coughing violently, unable to sleep. By the next morning, the day of the field trip, he had developed a fever.

"I'm sorry sweetie, but you'll have to stay home today." Didi said, after removing the thermometer from Tommy's ear and giving him some more medicine.

Tommy took it, but didn't swallow the liquid. Rather, he took a sip of water, only to swoosh the stuff around in his mouth, as he left the kitchen table and waved goodbye to his little brother, who was about to leave for preschool. As he saw his little brother and daddy out the door, he hurried up the stairs and into the bathroom, where he spit the yucky medicine out into the sink and brushed his teeth. Then, he ran to his room where he put on some dark clothes, including a black hoody he had received for Christmas from his maternal grandparents, and ran out the door, not long before the bus was due to arrive. Unfortunately, his mother spotted him heading out the door.

"And where do you think you're going Tommy?" Didi asked, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Tommy quickly spun around and faced his mom.

"To school! I've gotta go on today's field trip. I can't miss getting my class picture taken with Reptar." Tommy explained, before having another coughing fit.

"You're sick, you're not going to school today. Now back inside and into bed. I'll bring you some nice yummy apple juice in a little while. After all, Lipchitz says, an apple a day keeps the doctor away." Didi said, leading Tommy back into the house, just as the bus pulled up to pick up Phil and Lil at the house next-door.

The five-year-old reluctantly went up to his room, where he took off his clothes, put back on his pajamas and climbed into bed. Sick, sad, and disappointed, he spent the day in bed.

Meanwhile, everybody else arrived at school and headed off on their field trip. They were each paired with a buddy, only Chuckie knew something was off when he ended up getting paired with Kai and Kya, instead of Tommy.

"Where's Tommy you guys?" Chuckie asked.

"Lil tells me he's home sick today." Kya said.

"Phil even told me he saw him try to sneak out the door to school, but his mother stopped him just as the bus arrived." Kai added.

"Oh, I hope he feels better soon." Chuckie said, as the bus arrived at the KLPO TV studio, where the kids got out and met up with their tour guide, Stephanie, the host of Miss Stephanie's Happy House, after obtaining the head position of the show a few years ago, post that audition gone wrong, when Angelica Pickles tried out to be on Miss Carrol's Happy House, only to get that mean old lady to reveal her true colors, and swear on live national television.

That afternoon, after school let out and everybody had headed home, while they were just learning how to use the phone, Chuckie got permission from his parents to give Tommy's house a call and tell him how the field trip went and see how his friend was doing. Lucky for him, Tommy was up from his second nap of the day and having a snack, so they got to talk.

"Sorry you missed the field trip today Tommy." Chuckie said.

"Me too." Tommy said, in a very stuffy sounding tone of voice.

"So, how are you feeling?" Chuckie asked.

"Crummy!" Tommy replied, taking another sip of his apple juice and blowing his nose on the sleeve of his pajama shirt.

"Well, we saw all sorts of neat stuff. Not to worry, you didn't miss seeing the new Okey-dokey Jones set for the show coming to Netflix, as it was off limits. We did get our picture taken with Reptar though, and we'll show it to you when you return to school next week." Chuckie said.

Soon after that, Chuckie's daddy told him his time was up for his phone call, so they said their goodbyes and Tommy went on to finish his snack, before reluctantly taking another dose of medicine, which he held in his cheeks and ran off to the bathroom to spit out again, before heading back to bed, hoping to not awaken until the next day. As he lay down, he only hoped that class picture taken with Reptar wouldn't be blown up and posted on the wall for everybody to see, as he wouldn't be able to stand looking at that picture, knowing he had to miss the field trip he had been waiting all week for.

The following day, he spoke on the phone with Min Jun and Zack, who were hanging together for the day. They told him that next Friday's field trip, they would be heading to a wild life preserve, where Nigel Thornberry would be there, talking to the class about animals.

"I can't miss this trip." Tommy said in a raspy tone of voice, barely able to speak above a whisper.

"I hope you're well enough to go." Min Jun said on the other end of the phone.

"Don't you worry Min Jun, I'll be just fine, but if I'm gonna be better in time, I'd better go back to bed." Tommy said.

"But didn't your mom wake you up from your nap to come to the phone?" Zack asked, who was talking on another portable cordless phone in Min Jun's house.

"All the reason why I need to get back to bed. Besides, my chest doesn't feel good and my throat hurts. I feel awful, and sleep and juice are the only things that are gonna help me get better." Tommy said.

"Didn't I over hear Chuckie mentioning medicine to you on the bus?" Min Jun asked.

"What does he know? Medicine tastes yucky. He may be my bestest friend, but sometimes, I don't think he knows what he's talking about." Tommy said, letting out another cough.

"Don't know if you realized this, but he takes medicine everyday for his allergies and Asthma." Zack commented.

"Yeah, but that's different. I've just got a cold, I don't need no medicine. Now if I don't get back to bed, I'm not gonna be well enough to see Nigel Strawberry nextest week in person. So, goodbye!" Tommy snapped, pressing the end call button on the cordless land line phone before either Zack or Min Jun had another chance to speak, slamming it down on the table, running off to his room in a fit of rage.

" _My friends never get sick, what do they know. If they'd leave me alone and just, let me sleep, I'd get over this stupid cold, and everything would get back to normen around here._ " Tommy thought to himself, climbing back into bed and heading back into dream land for another nap.

Unfortunately, if his friends weren't calling, he had to deal with his four-year-old brother Dil wanting to play, who Tommy angrily chased out of his room several times, not wishing to be bothered. He also had to eat meals, use the bathroom, and continued to drink his apple juice and spit out the medicine his mother attempted to give him, confident that yucky stuff wouldn't make him better. The next Monday rolled around, and he was still too sick to return to school. As he continued to drink apple juice and sleep a good 90% of the day, his cold symptoms weren't getting any better. He was out of school for the rest of that week, until Thursday evening came around, and things got much worse.

It happened at dinner, when Tommy attempted to respond to a comment Dil had made about something he saw on Little Einsteins on Netflix that afternoon, when he found his chest hurt really bad, and he was having trouble breathing.

"That's, really, nice, Dil." Tommy commented, taking a breath in between each word.

His mother came over and lay a hand on his forehead.

"My goodness Tommy, you do feel warm." Didi said, sticking the thermometer into his ear and taking his temperature.

"One-hundred and two." Didi said, removing the thermometer.

Tommy shrugged his shoulders and sighed.

"I guess this means, no Nigel Strawberry tomorrow." He whispered to himself, as he slowly went upstairs to bed, having to stop halfway up the stairs to catch his breath.

Dil was climbing up the stairs behind him.

"You okay T?" Dil asked.

Tommy simply shook his head, as his chest wheezed, and he inched his way up the rest of the stairs and back into bed. He didn't understand what could have gone wrong.

" _I drank lots of fluids, I've ben sleeping more than I can ever remember doing in my life, how come I'm feeling so much worser?_ " Tommy thought to himself, as he lay down once again on his pillow, for what felt like the bazillionth time that week.

The following day was Friday, and once again, his class went on another field trip without him. This time, Chuckie was paired up with Phil and Lil, who argued over who would hold his hand at the exhibit.

"I wanna hold Chuckie's hand Lillian." Phil argued.

"You held his hand when we left the school and got on to the bus. Until we get to where Nigel Strawberry is speaking, I get a turn, Phillip." Lil argued, grabbing at Chuckie's hand.

"No me!" Phil argued, grabbing at Chuckie's other hand.

The twins continued to argue loudly inside the wildlife museum, causing Chuckie to scream and nearly topple backwards into a statue, almost breaking a precious artifact, when Mrs. LindaBerry came over and stopped the group.

"Kids! Enough!" Mrs. LindaBerry shouted.

Phil and Lil let go of Chuckie's hands, falling backwards on to the floor, as Chuckie backed into a clay statue of a lion, which fell to the floor and shattered into a million pieces.

While all of the kids got to see Nigel Thornberry give his speech, Chuckie, Phil and Lil weren't too happy when they returned to school, and had to have their first detention ever, where they were instructed to make new clay statues of animals and write an apology to the museum for breaking their statue.

" _If Tommy had taken his medicine like I told him, he would be all better and this wouldn't have happened._ " Chuckie angrily thought to himself, trying to finish his statue of a lion, but running into difficulty getting the tail to stay in place.

Meanwhile, Tommy was having a horrible day. He had more trouble breathing during the night, and experienced terrible chest pains. His mother took him to the doctor's the following morning as soon as the doctor's office opened, to receive a terrible diagnosis.

"Your son has a bad case of Pneumonia, we must admit him to the hospital right away." Doctor Shackter said, sending Tommy and his mother immediately down to the pulmonary department.

Tommy was admitted, only to be placed into a hospital bed and stabilized, while his four-year-old brother was staying home from preschool with daddy, because he awoke during the night with diarrhea. And once again, Tommy was being given purple liquid medicine by one of the nurses.

"This medicine will make you all better." The nurse said, placing a sirrenge to Tommy's lips.

"No!" Tommy squeaked in a very breathy whisper, swatting the sirrenge out of the nurse's hand and sending it flying across the room, where it hit against the wall, and left a huge purple stain.

A few minutes later, the nurse came back with a couple of doctors, and an IV poll.

"Well, if we can't get this patient to take the medicine orally, hold still Tommy." One of the doctors said, as they pushed up the sleeve of Tommy's hospital gown, and saw to placing a needle in his arm.

"Ow!" Tommy cried in a tiny voice.

While he was generally a very brave person, he never liked needles, and unfortunately, it was his own fault that he was getting this needle, as they placed the IV of medicine in his arm.

" _If only I had listened to my best friend._ " Tommy thought to himself, as he lay there in his hospital bed, feeling weak and helpless.

Sometime over that weekend, the IV injections of medicine helped him to feel better, and he had some of his classmates come to visit him in the hospital, including Chuckie, who unknown to Tommy, was only getting to see him because he was in the hospital, as he had been grounded from playing with his friends as a result of the clay lion incident at the museum, even though it was assentially Phil and Lil's fault, all three of them were involved in the breaking of the statue, ultimately causing all three of them, to be punished.

"How are you feeling Tommy?" Chuckie asked, coming to his bed side.

"You were right Chuckie, I should have taken my medicine. Having that yucky taste in my mouth for a few minutes and washing it away with water would be so much better than what I've been reduced to, a weekend in the hopcickle, and this thing in my arm." Tommy said, pointing to where the needle was in his arm.

"Uh, Tommy, we're in kindergarten now, we're not babies no more. It's pronounced, hospital, not hopcickle." Chuckie said.

"I've been sick Chuckie, give me a break!" Tommy screamed angrily, nearly pulling the IV out of his arm.

Chuckie simply shrugged his shoulders and let out a sigh, as he was led out of the room by his mother, concluding his visiting time for that day.

Tommy was finally well enough to leave the hospital the following Monday, and by Wednesday of that week, he returned to school, good as new. Unfortunately, he soon caught the stomach bug that his brother had, awakening on the third Field Trip Friday in a row, with diarrhea in his pants and a fever of one-hundred.

"I hope you don't go back into the hopcickle again Tommy." Dil said, heading out the door to preschool.

"It's pronounced, hospital Dil, and no worries, I'm gonna take that medicine, no matter how yucky it was, and get all better quickly, so I don't miss anymore field trip Fridays." Tommy diclaired, seeing his brother off to school.

And sure enough, over that weekend, amongst diarrhea and one time of throwing up, aside from drinking frozen Pepsi and more bowls of chicken noodle soup than he hoped to remember, along with lots of green Jell-O, he also took the yucky tasting pink liquid known as Pepto Bizmol, and actually swallowed it this time, opposed to spitting it out in the sink when his parents weren't looking. Miracle upon miracle, come the following Monday, his symptoms were all cleared up, and he returned to school.

At the end of the week, he attended Field Trip Friday, where he and his class went to Ice Cream Mountain, and got to learn how ice cream was made, even getting to make their own ice cream flavors to take home. Tommy was not only happy he made it to a field trip, but he was feeling good, and much wiser, realizing that sometimes, your best friend, is right.

The End


End file.
